Dear Editor,
I have been following the incident at Musaeus College where Anuthara Kavindi Jayawardene from Malabe committed suicide due to an issue at the school.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to Anuthara’s parents. Only those who have lost something so precious can understand the pain her parents may feel. I do hope that you will find peace amidst all this.
A child committing suicide, either by hanging, poisoning and any other method, is indeed a tragedy. I would like to thank Professor Ravindra Fernando for his illuminating statistics and for clarifying that “99% of them were NOT mentally ill. Almost all of them ingested poisons on sudden impulse and were regretting, ashamed and guilty about the event, and certainly wanted to live when hospitalized”.
I have a thought. In this “Budun Wediya Rate`” if children are committing suicide on sudden impulses, there is something wrong. The problem could very well be in the education system, or with the school. The blame could also fall on the parents. My thought is that while Anuthara’s sudden impulse and ill-advised decision cost her own life and her parents the only child they had, the reason for the sudden impulse could have been more than one.
If a child commits suicides every time a teacher mistreats or punishes them, I don’t thin we will have children left to attend schools. In one case if a teacher yells at a student, the student will commit suicide and in another case the student will realize what he/she had done and correct the mistake and go on to become a good citizen. I remember, in year 9 I was the class monitor and I cut one class and walked around the school because I was bored. My grade supervisor caught me, dragged me to the class, slapped me right across the face and yelled at me in front of the whole class and then made me kneel in the sandy road in front of the building for a whole period in the burning sun. I didn’t cut classes ever again. I’m not saying what he did was either right or wrong. He could have acted differently. However, on the last day of school, I went to see him and worshipped him with love and respect. Even to this day, I remember him fondly.
I was surprised and disappointed by the behavior of “award winning” journalist Ms. Renee Mohamed of the Sunday Leader. It is apparent from her articles that she is more interested in attacking Musaeus College and tarnish it’s name as well as attacking anyone who opposes her than to actually report the facts and find out the truth about the incident. Ms. Mohamed seems to want to have the last word. I’m sure it is helpful that your articles are being published in YOUR newspaper. Unfortunately, your readers don’t have the same advantage as you do. Ms. Mohamed and the Editor in chief, Sunday Leader is “UNBOWED AND UNAFRAID”, are you sure that you are at all “UNBIASED”?
Ms. Mohamed calls Musaeus College the school that failed. I understand that when it comes to human life, even loss of 1 out of a billion is not acceptable. But, Ms. Mohamed, how do you define failure? Does the impulsive behavior of 2 children who were misguided or disturbed overshadow the accomplishments of 30000+ students during 114 years? If so we live in a world full of failures. Unfortunately, that includes you too as undoubtedly you would have been a student in one of Sri Lanka’s failed schools. I can tell you one thing. Musaeus was here before Ms. Mohamed and her editor was even born. Musaeus was here even before Sunday Leader was started. And I’m very sure that Sunday Leader will be there after all of us have died and Sunday Leader goes bankrupt. Just remember the old saying “ballo biruwata kandu pahath wenne nehe”.
It is a known fact that all the parents try to enroll their children in so called “elite” schools. As the Editor in chief had explicitly stated, “elite” schools get more negative attention than “not-so-elite” schools during an incident. If 119 children had committed suicide in 2007, for the sake of justice, each and every incident should have been covered by the Sunday Leader. As we all know “Pala ethi rukata wawulo wahanawa”. This marked me want to ask, is this really about Anuthara Jayawardene or is this just an attack on an “elite” school? Are the lives of other 118 children who died are not important? Is the pain of their parents trivial? Wasn’t it important to find out how and why they died so that we can do something to stop teenagers from committing suicide again? Or does the fact remains that you found the tree with most delicious fruit to land on? If that’s the case, you are nothing more than mere vultures who are feeding on someone else’s misfortune?
Every person, regardless of age gender or race, will be loyal to what they hold precious. People who don’t have that feeling are called “traitors” and are sometimes shot to death. All humans have pride. When attacked, everyone has a right to defend themselves. The Museaites are also defending their school from these unwarranted attacks. As far as I could understand, they are not saying that they are happy that Anuthara died. They are not saying that the prefects or the teachers involved acted accordingly. They are just saying that stop attacking my school because of something that happened. Let authorities and professionals find out what happened and then try to figure out what to do. It is tragic that two students of the same school committed suicide. I’m sure there are other schools with similar situations. But attacking Musaeus isn’t going to bring either Anuthara or other children who committed suicide back to life. What we need to do is found out what happened and find solutions so that nothing like this will happen ever again.
I have one more thought. Did you realize the pain you’re causing the parents on Anuthara by dragging this on rather than letting them find peace and let Anuthara rest in peace?
